I almost squee-ed with glee before I realized thata) I have no idea what that means, andb) "Starlady" and "Fast-Friend" were originally published in Martin's 1981 collection Sandkings and that these are not brand new stories.

But, that's okay because I haven't read these two stories and this is a nice limited edition type publication for collectors.

That Sandkings collection, though? It's bookended by the outstanding stories "The Way of Cross and Dragon" and what is quite possibly my all time favorite Martin story, the titular "Sandkings".

Regardless of whether or not I get my grubby hands on a copy of the limited edition book, I think I'm going to track down a copy of Sandkings and read the stories anyway.

I thought so. I liked the episode up until I read the story. The story is a million times better, but I didn't read the story until a couple years ago, so when I did read it I thought "this sounds familiar".Darn good short story indeed.